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Eight Major Theories Of Developmental Science

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Chapter 1 (History, Theory, and Research Strategies) – 7/10/2017 This chapter was a fantastic introduction to the different developmental theories and how they have changed with time. It provided a basic understanding of the how development has been studied, and what factors have been identified as playing a role in one’s development. I want to focus on the eight major theories of developmental science. But first, what is developmental science? Developmental science is a multifaceted field of study committed to the understanding of human constancy and changes throughout life. The studies aim to clarify what influences development, and has been greatly due to scientific interest as well as a general social desire to improve our lives. …show more content…

Behaviorism has two different views. John Watson deduced that environmental input plays the dominant role in behavior. A child’s conduct can be directly impacted by adults and their reactions to stimuli. Behavioral development is a gradual process that is reinforced through associations. B. F. Skinner specifically stated that positive feedback only reinforces behavior, but unfavorable responses can in turn negatively alter one’s behavior. The Social Learning theory, developed by Albert Bandura, highlights the importance of echoing as the root of development. Many factors play a role in a child’s desire for responses. As a child gradually develops, they then become more specific in their response to circumstances. These two theories can however be significantly influenced by behavior modifications and their view on environmental input is extremely …show more content…

Ethology focuses on one’s ability to change behaviors. Imprinting is a pattern of behavior early in development containing the critical and sensitive periods. The critical period is a short-term period in which a child is physically mature, but still requires aid to learn certain behaviors. The sensitive period is the “sweet spot” for learning. Evolutionary Developmental theory is a pursuit to understand how social, emotional, and cognitive abilities change within a species, and how these abilities change with age. Vygot’s Sociocultural theory looks at how culture, traditions and beliefs are interconnected with the process of development. This theory believes that a society plays a role in passing down behaviors from one generation to another. Through formal schooling and personal relationships development is both gradual and staged that can be influenced in many

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Behaviorist tend to focus more on the influence that the environment has on behavior. There has been debates over the contributions of nature versus nurture frequently taking a narrow-minded approach. With

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Some theories have been postulated to address the various stages that are involved in child development. Two of these theories include the evolutionary perspective and the Bronfenbrenner 's ecological model. Bronfenbrenner 's ecological model discusses the significance of the whole ecological system that surrounds a child during development. Such systems consist of various subsystems that help and enhance the growth of children. On the other hand, the evolutionary perspective states that the mind of human beings are predominantly composed of highly specialized systems that are designed with special features to solve certain issues, the theory further postulates that the problems are consistent and some have confronted ancestors and digs deeper into the lineage.

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Psychologists and educators emphasize different ideas and approaches regarding child development. Therefore, there are theories that can be defined as a set of principles in which the practices of an activity are based upon. With-in this particular writing I plan to describe and evaluate the following theories: maturationism, behaviorism, humanism and constructivism, which can all be identified as theories of learning. Learning is defined as a process that brings together personal and environmental experiences and influences for acquiring, enriching or modifying ones knowledge, skills, values, attitudes, behavior and world views. These theories can be applied to individuals of all ages and can be incorporated during the different stages of

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Introduction to Developmental Psychology The purpose of this essay is to describe and evaluate two approaches/theories in developmental psychology. Also, by applying the nature versus nurture and debate to both approaches, looking at the arguments to support both sides. It will describe and evaluate the psychodynamic theory and the social learning theory, also describing and evaluating studies to support these theories. Cox (2009) explained that the nature-nurture debate is a long running debate in Psychology.

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Urie Bronfenbrenner believed that a person 's development was affected by everything in their surrounding environment. He came up with a Ecological Systems Theory (framework) that provides one approach to answer how is one child’s development is affected by their social relationships and the world around them, and divided one person 's environment into five different levels which are the microsystem, the mesosystem, the exosystem, the macrosystem, and the chronosystem. This observation report is an analysis of a 5 year old boy developmental progression using Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological System Theory. I will be using other major child development theories like Jean Piaget’s cognitive development theory, Ivan Parlov’s classical conditioning theory, Burrhus Frederic Skinner’s operant

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Ivan Pavlov and Burrhus Frederic Skinner are the behaviourist theorists I studied. Pavlov’s theory of classical conditioning became well known, his work encouraged others like Skinner to study and develop his own theory of operant conditioning. The “A,B,C” behaviour model of positive reinforcement is used in many early childhood settings. Skinner believed the best way to understand the behaviour is to look at the cause of the action and its consequence. I observed the ECCE setting for practical examples of numeracy and literacy.

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Behaviorists believe that our responses to environmental stimuli shapes our behaviors. John Watson believed that if he were given infants, then he would be able to make one a thei,

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In the same way, it also helps in understanding how broader aspects including culture or time influences individual development process. The major objective was to review the human behavior dynamics and provide greater understanding of basic knowledge relating to sociological, biological and psychological impacts that influences the interaction of individual with society and

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Child development is a field of developmental psychology that deals with the different changes seen in a child cognitively and biologically. In medical terms, it is defined as “The processes by which a child acquires skills in the areas of social, emotional, intellectual, speech and language, as well as physical development including fine and gross motor skills. The developmental stages refer to the sequential order of acquiring skills that children typically go through during the various stages of life. ”1 Childhood development is not limited to the developing stages of a child, i.e. between the stages of birth and puberty; it also includes the stages of the fetus inside the womb and the adolescent stage of children between 13-19 years of

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It suggests that children emulate behaviors and incorporate them into their existing structures of knowledge when they are exposed to new situations in which they can actually interact with others. Vygotskys theory is one of the foundations of constructivism. It asserts three major themes: 1. Social interaction plays a fundamental role in the process of coognitive development. In contrast to Jean Piaget 's understanding of child development (in which development necessarily precedes learning), Vygotsky felt social learning precedes development.

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Human development refers to the progress that human beings make in their lives. Alternatively, childhood development is the process through which a child advances from infancy to independence. This type of development has different domains, namely, physical (changes in the body), cognitive (changes in thinking), social (changes in the way an individual relate to others) and emotional (changes in an individual’s personality or feelings) domains (Woolfolk, 2012). These domains uniquely interact in a way that a child’s progress in one area, leads to achievement in another field. For instance, when a child learns how to walk or talk, he or she is exposed to a new environment that advances their development.

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Throughout human life span, there will be different variations. These variations are known as development of human growth. It begins from birth and ends with death. Developmental psychologists study a large variety of theoretical areas, such as biological, social, emotion, and cognitive developments. If we are specializing in education field, various background awareness of how people grow and change throughout life is important.

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The parents or carers and immediate family will have the biggest impact on a child’s social development however it is as important to take into consideration that a child’s development is influenced by a wider network of social supports Bronfenbrenner, U (2009). Urie Bronfenbrenner developed the Ecological systems theory to explain how a child’s development is effected by their social relationships and by everything in their surrounding environment. He believed that each person’s environment is divided into five different environmental levels which are the Microsystem, the Mesosystem, the Exosystem, the Macrosystem and the Chronosystem and that each of these levels impact the child’s development either directly or non-directly Bronfenbrenner, U (2009)

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Several theories exist to explain the process of human development. The following will discuss five individual, influential theories of development and how they relate to age-related milestones throughout the lifespan. Biology and Evolutionary Theories emphasize that the factors that motivate human behaviour are both genetic and biological process, and that they have gradually changed over time through a process of genetic mutation, natural selection, and evolution (Bee, Boyd, & Johnson, 2018). Associated with these theories are the study of genes, patterns of inheritance, behaviour genetics, ethology, evolutionary psychology, as well as the work of influential evolutionist Charles Darwin, who believed that the development of the human species could understood by studying child development (Bee, Boyd, & Johnson, 2018).

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These theories really expanded and informed me about child development because it dealt with the child’s thinking process as well as how they progress in life. Jean Piaget viewed child development on their efforts and how they acted upon it which geared towards conginite development. It consisted of four stages: sensorimotor,preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational. His idea of adoption correlates with my perspective because it is impressive to see how the child adapts to certain information. Also with his perspective of the four cognitive stages due to the child’s life span “mental operations evolve from learning based on simple sensory and motor activity to logical, abstract thought” due their development as the years go by (Martorell, 2013, pg.

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